Having a few problems with my PC and I’m wondering if it’s hardware or windows related. It’s been a while since I reinstalled, but I don’t want to waste all that time to find the problems are still there.
Does anyone know of any good hardware testing programs? I’ve used MemTest86 to test my RAM, it comes up with errors in test 5 and 8. I replaced the RAM with new stuff, and oh dear still errors. So I’m left wondering if there could be a problem elsewhere.
Symptoms:
Windows 2000 freezes sometimes when I open a new Netscape or I.E. window. When using Netscape, the new window doesn’t appear. When the cursor moves over the task bar the busy timer cursor is displayed. I can close all windows, but do nothing with the task bar. I can control-alt-delete still, but shutting down doesn’t work. Under IE all program windows freeze. I can try and end the I.E. windows, but it says it can’t because they are being debugged? I happens intermittently, although seems to be getting more often.
Windows XP:
When playing Vice City the game will crash to a white flashing screen after a few minutes of play. Playing Half-Life it happens, but rarely, and only ever after playing for a while. These are the only two new games I’ve been playing recently.
It could be that the two problems are unrelated, but it’s the Windows XP problem that looks the worst to me.![]()
Thanks,
Anders.


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Having a few problems with my PC and I’m wondering if it’s hardware or windows related. It’s been a while since I reinstalled, but I don’t want to waste all that time to find the problems are still there.
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Firstly could you post your spec as completely as possible? Secondly is this a problem that's gradually become worse, popped up suddenly ... ie. has your PC ever worked 100% and was any hw or sw different before? Thirdly be sure everything is running stock (ie no o/c's, slow RAM timings etc), have you ever o/c'ed?
After a quick glance there's certainly nothing really fishy there. IIRC I/O voltage should be 3.3v, check the mobo for jumpers or the BIOS as 3.5v is used for o/c'ing and not usually needed (it can damage your components). Your XP1800+ Tbred 1.5v should run very cool, so heat really shouldn't be any problem. KT266A is a nice chipset and the Abit is one of the best ones, totally designed for 266FSB which you're using and have always used which should rule out unusual IDE/PCI/AGP speeds. However it does specify that it doesn't have full compatibility with Tbreds and will only work up to XP2000+, still shouldn't be an issue if you stayed below 1.67ghz (XP2000+). Crucial is top notch RAM and as said you changed it anyway. Your gfx card is also very good as is your PSU, that's not to say they couldn't develop faults but it's good to have quality components. Some of Gainward's GF4TI were known to develop a fault but the gfx card couldn't corrupt your OS or HD, just result in instability and even then only likely when gaming.
To test your HDs you could use a little program from Maxtor intended for RMA's, it may need to format though, are you backed up? It could be the RAID playing up, do you get probs in XP & 2000? You could get hold of a new 80GB HD as they are very cheap now (< £60), allowing you to do a fresh install or test your current HDs without data loss. I'm not sure what “AXV CD/DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device” is about. You may be best to try the latest drivers and ideally mobo BIOS but it shouldn't matter if the PC was stable before.
If you've tried diff RAM it would make sense to try diff gfx card, PSU and CPU to be thorough but again it may not help unless you have a fresh OS (partition?) to use. You could disable the L1 and/or L2 CPU caches if the BIOS lets you, perf will suck but that would be enough to cause crashes and corruption, enable if it doesn't help (again you need a working install to test stability with).

. I can play Vice City without it crashing (which is hours so far); previously Vice City would crash in a few minutes so I’m taking this as a positive sign. 